March 2011 archive

How Old are People When They Need Long-Term Care?

Last week we established that most long-term care doesn’t happen in a nursing home. Most of it is provided by a primary caregiver in the home. That caregiver is usually a woman, and she could be a daughter or daughter-in-law or a spouse. She could even be a mom, like my cousin who took six …

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Your Customized Benefit Selection Process

The following is an abbreviated section from my book The ABC’s of Long-Term Care Insurance – keepin’ it REALLY simple for you, folks! To simplify the benefit selection process, there are six major choices that impact a premium. Here is each choice and a recommendation. 1a) Daily or Monthly Benefit – Look at the average …

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The Federal Long-Term Care Insurance Plan with 2011 Open Season Update

The largest employer-sponsored long-term care insurance program with eligibility estimated at 20 million people, was launched in March of 2002 with limited benefits, and expanded during Open Season (July 1 – December 31, 2002) with full benefits and abbreviated underwriting for active employees and spouses. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) selected John Hancock and …

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What is Long-Term Care?

There are many names for this event that can dramatically affect your relationships with others – your parents, children, siblings, and yes, it can and does affect marriages and committed relationships in many ways. Together we will explore the financial side of course, but not stop there. The most common name for this is long-term …

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The New Directions of LTCI

The New Directions of LTCI (written for Agent Sales Journal, January 2010 issue) Research from McKinsey & Co. finds that the average American family will face a savings gap of $250,000 at the time of retirement. Even with payments from Social Security and pensions, as well as personal savings in 401(k) and other retirement plans, …

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Trends in LTCI or Trains?

Trends in LTCI or Trains? (written for Life Insurance Selling, November 2010 issue) The long-term care insurance industry is hanging between the Medicaid expansion on one side making people think the state will pay, the CLASS Act on the other side making people think the federal government will pay, and rate increases hanging over us …

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You Can’t Put a Price on Dignity

You Can’t Put a Price on Dignity (written for California Broker, November 2010) The nation is being engulfed by a tidal wave of entitlement mentality. The feasibility of funding long-term care with taxpayer dollars through the Medicaid program is bleak with 150 million employees vs. 58 million people on Medicaid today.2, 3 That’s a ratio …

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Long-Term Care Insurance Needed to Protect America’s Financial Recovery

Long-Term Care Insurance Needed to Protect America’s Financial Recovery (written for Agent Sales Journal, November 2010 issue) By Phyllis Shelton, President, LTC Consultants and LTCiTraining.com America has a choice to make. There’s no way that public dollars alone can pay the long-term care for the baby boomers, 95% of whom have no coverage for long-term …

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Is CPI Inflation Adequate?

You will definitely want to pick up Prudential’s 2010 Long-Term Care Cost Study, which measures trends in costs associated with the major forms of long-term care services. (See the link to this survey under “What Does Long-Term Care Cost?” on this site.) I’ve seen the cost of care increase an average of 5-6% compounded annually …

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